The Blue Goat is a restaurant right near campus on Grove Avenue. I have always heard great things about it but hadn't had the chance to try it until now, and I'm glad I did. The restaurant has a cool atmosphere with tons of booths and bar seating. It also has private rooms in the back of the restaurants with glass walls so that you can have a bigger party without feeling isolated from the rest of the restaurant. The bar scene Thursday night was crowded with tons of middle-aged people who seemed to be part of the same community. There were tons of friendly vibes -- it seemed like a great neighborhood restaurant.
Our waitress and the rest of the wait staff were very nice, but did not give off the same friendly vibes. We would ask our waitress for recommendations between dishes and she would recommend something completely different than anything we were looking at. She was not very helpful. But I can't complain because all of the food was delicious!
We started with the bibb salad which had pickled pears and apples, seasonal peas, red onions, toasted spice nuts and a bacon vinaigrette. It was great and I was even tempted to order another. We also ordered the shrimp and grits fritters and did end up getting a second order because we loved them so much. We were intrigued to see exactly what they would look like: they were like croquettes and came with a bit of tomato and pepper chutney. For our main course we ordered the Blue Goat flatbread which has spicy goat sausage, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, mozzarella and white sauce. It came out like a pizza and was very good, a great item to share with the table. Then we ordered the roasted Scottish salmon with ginger pear glaze and red curry cauliflower. I did not think the cauliflower had a lot of flavor but the fish was wonderful.
All of the desserts sounded so delicious and interesting! We had a lot of trouble choosing but decided to go the risky route and try their pineapple cornbread with jalapeno ice cream, and it was a good choice. The ice cream was sweet but had a kick to it at the end and complimented the cornbread really well. I was ready to order another one.
The Blue Goat was really good and is a great spot for a nicer dinner near campus. I would definitely go back for the food -- but not the wait staff.
Shout Out!
Tyler's salmon special. Not the typical thing you would expect to be at Tyler's! It's a nice surprise and delicious!
Contact reporter Sarah Stewart at sarah.stewart@richmond.edu
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